Regular Life Rhythm Restart
[Photos taken 16 – 31 August 2021, posted online 23 December 2021. Record number of Covid-19 infections yesterday, restrictions have been moved down to 20 persons per room, 200 max and masked at organized seated events with official negative rapid-test, and 2 m distancing instead of 1 m. Zero snow on the ground, and the officially-no-longer-erupting volcano is shaking again. Never a dull moment!]
With summer vacation from work officially over, life began resuming some sort of a rhythm.
In the spring, Emma had managed to squeeze out of me a week of half-days at a “petting-zoo” in Mosfellsbær (a 20 minute drive from our house) so this first week back at work involved a lot of driving. Thankfully, Anna now has a driving license, so we split up driving duties.
With covid-19 levels running rather high, but waning, Finnur and I worked mostly from home. Walks were taken, the garden was harvested, parties were attended (!), we filled house #2 to the rafters with people one night, Bjarki got vaccinated, schools restarted, and I caught some cold or other that was not covid. (45-ish images total)
Monday 16 August 2021
Bjarki Turns 14 Years Old!
[Photos taken 28 June – 01 July 2021, posted online 26 September 2021. Elections yesterday, for the first time in Iceland, women hold more than half the seats in parliament.]
Bjarki’s long awaited birthday finally appeared and he’s now officially 14 years old, and busy checking ever more boxes on the “stereotypical-teen checklist”.
We again held two parties, one for each family, a few days apart, in between life as usual. (25-ish images total)
Monday 28 June 2021
Anniversary, Parties & Family-Meet!
[Photos taken 17 – 20 June 2021, posted online 05 September 2021. Autumn weather is creeping up on us, the leaves have begun turning. Covid-19 cases still being diagnosed at a steady, perhaps diminishing clip, this wave has seen 3 deaths so far. Oh, and our house has a new roof.]
Finnur and I marked 27 (Twenty-Seven!) years of togetherness, then it was back to life as usual…
Well, not quite, as our social calendar just exploded with activity. Over the almost-long-weekend (Thursday was a public holiday), we hosted friends at house #2, I attended a party with my EE undergrad cohort, Finnur took the kids to a family-meet, while I attended a second masters-degree graduation of a friend, and then we celebrated mom’s birthday!
So. Many. People. In. Such. A. Short. Time! (40-ish images)
Independence Day – Thursday 17 June 2021
Emma’s Birthday #2, Earthquakes Swarm
[Photos taken 24 – 28 February 2021, posted online 26 June 2021. As of today, Icelandic authorities have revoked all domestic Covid-19 restrictions, but border restrictions remain in place. The reason is high vaccination rates, with about 80% of 16+ year-olds having at least begun vaccinations, and 50% being fully vaccinated.]
After our fun ski trip, it was mostly back to life as normal, except for hosting Emma’s birthday party #2, going out to dinner, aaaand a sudden rise in earthquake activity close by (that would culminate in an actual volcanic eruption a month later!). (25-ish images)
Wednesday 24 February 2021
Doggy-Time, Football-Meet & Vacation-Awaiting
[Photos taken 02 – 16 July 2020, posted online 31 December 2020 09 January 2021. Here’s hoping for a less bonkers 2021…! Hahahaha! 2021 clearly isn’t going down in the which-year-was-most-crazy competition without a fight! (See US news) But local covid-19 restrictions are being loosened next week, yay!]
We timed our summer vacation to coincide with Anna’s vacation, as she only had a summer job for 6 weeks. In practice, this meant the first half of July was spent waiting for a vacation.
The biggest event of the fortnight was Emma’s big football tournament, a yearly 4-day-long event hosted by her club for about 2400 girls from all over the country. Restrictions had loosened enough to host it, but it essentially turned into three near-co-located but separate, simultaneous tournaments.
We repeatedly visited the puppy in the west end of town, and the mostly lovely weather made spending time outdoors a joy. (65-ish images total)
Thursday 02 July 2020
Bjarki Turns Thir-TEEN Years Old
[Photos taken 28 – 30 June 2020, posted online 28 December 2020. I’m on vacation until the new year, with no plans. First Covid-19 vaccine boxes landed in Iceland this morning. ]
Bjarki is now officially a teenager. We celebrated by hosting two parties, one for each family, a day apart. Thankfully the weather cooperated. (30-ish images total)
Sunday 28 June 2020
A Taste of Normal Life
[Photos taken 16 – 27 June 2020, posted online 27 December 2020. Hope you all had a lovely yuletide!! ]
With Covid all but gone (for the time being) people gatherings resumed (often on a smaller scale), gyms and restaurants reopened, and life in general went mostly back to normal. The weather even played nice!
We attended two graduation parties, Emma went from all-day gymnastics camp to horse-camp, while Bjarki went to 2.5 hour long gymnastics practices four times per week, as he’s now aged out of the camp-scene. Anna did odd jobs at the local library, tended to her veggies, and the puppy Spori.
We helped my brother Pétur and family move into their new apartment (very exciting!) which meant a very satisfying Ikea-assembly dosage for yours truly (me!). (55-ish images total)
Tuesday 16 June 2020
Emma Turns 7 Years Old
[Photos taken 12 – 16 February 2020, posted online 31 July 2020. No more lovely weather, as a deep low pressure area will be visiting over the weekend. Most weekend events cancelled anyway as a result of Covid-19 reappearing.]
Our Emma is now 7 years old. She got a mini-celebration on her actual birthday, and a proper party a few days later. Little did we know that would be the last family party for a long while. (35-ish images total)
Wednesday 12 February 2020
Games, Gingerbread & Good Times
[Photos from 26 December – 30 December 2019, posted online 04 July 2020. We should have had US visitors for a long weekend stay, but no US residents are being admitted into Iceland due to the botched US Covid-19 response.]
The holiday season was a good one for employees, as in we didn’t have to take many days off from work to get a 10-day-long vacation.
We spent the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve meeting people, playing games, and even made a ginger-bread house while staying at house #2! (50-ish photos total)
Thursday 26 December 2019
Bad Weather, Good Progress
[Photos taken 08 – 16 December 2019, posted online 31 May 2020. It’s yet another three day weekend, I’m getting a bit too used to them now!]
December marched on. The Sun deserted us for longer and longer periods of time, but life went on. There were family gatherings, Bjarki performed at the his yule-tide recital, I got a new view of a gymnastics hall, and the weather put its mark on all our lives.
Thankfully, the bathroom renovations marched on, and we finally had an operational toilet and shower. (No sink though.) Feeling inspired, a storage “solution” was installed in the garage, to lessen the chaos there. (50-ish images total)
Sunday 08 December 2019
